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European MPs are trying to teach Prime Minister Justin Trudeau geography, concerned that he can't identify Baltic nations. This is not a good situation to be in folks.

On Monday, Maclean’s magazine released a brief video of Trudeau answering a lightning round of simple questions. Most of them were light-hearted and personal. The magazine promised “more serious questions to come this Wednesday” when the PM did a town hall interview.

However there was a serious question in the lightning round. And boy did he blunder it. “What is your favourite Baltic nation?” His answer: “That’s not a thing.”

But it is. The three Baltic states are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – they became Soviet states after being occupied by the USSR in 1940. They’re now NATO allies. This means they’re Canada’s allies. And this in turn means it's possible our prime minister can’t identify three of Canada’s allies.

Does Trudeau not know this important chapter in 20th century history? While slip-ups on lightning rounds are to be forgiven, to simply say “that’s not a thing” so flippantly is troubling. Did he really mean it?

Wednesday – two days after his blunder – he clarified that he did in fact know them (this of course being the only answer he could give). Trudeau just claimed what he meant was that picking and choosing a favourite country is “not a thing”.

OK, if you say so, but it certainly doesn’t sound like that’s what he meant.

But his clarification is also alarming. As Macleans’ noted: “He was, he said, well aware that the Baltics exist – because he used to date a woman from one of those countries.”

Is that the rule these days? That he whose dating life covers the globe gets to govern it?

They’re worried Trudeau won’t defend their independence the same way Stephen Harper stood up for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.

An article in the Estonian newspaper Aripaev notes that “it remains unclear whether he doesn’t consider the Baltic countries as important or if he just does not know what they are.” Ouch. Well that’s just great. Trudeau faced one hard question and he blundered it such that he’s raised doubts about Canada’s seriousness on the world stage.

The Liberal platform argued that “under Stephen Harper, our influence and presence on the world stage has steadily diminished.” The campaign argued “the need for effective Canadian diplomacy has never been greater than it is today.” And that “our plan will restore Canada as a leader in the world.”

Memo to Prime Minister Selfie: You can’t be an effective world leader if you can’t identify countries on a map.

Sure, this minor blunder was made during a light-hearted interview. And who knows what he was really getting at it. But that in itself is a problem. The international community took note of Trudeau’s odd answer.

What’s that the Liberals were saying about diminishing our presence on the world stage?